James Lavelle’s Meltdown Bombin’ + Q&A with James Lavelle and Dick Fontaine Bombin’: A look at UK hip-hop culture through the colourful lense of graffiti artists, BFI, London 14.06.14

A year after Beat This!, Fontaine, his then partner, Pat Hartley, and the Shaw Theatre brought Bambaataa and a contingent of The Zulu Nation to London to inspire the UK’s nascent hip-hop underground with workshops in the hip-hop arts and an explosive show, much to the fury of the conventional media. The film follows Zulu Nation graffitti artist Brim on a magical mystery tour of the new centres of hip-hop energy, hanging out with Robert Del Naja of the Wild Bunch (also known as 3D) in Bristol, and Goldie in Wolverhampton – artists who would go on to become two of the UK’s most important musicians by playing a pivotal role in the evolution of British electronic music. The film, shot over a year, begins with a sequence devised by 3D and ends with Goldie making a pilgrimage to the Bronx River home of The Zulu Nation to inspire the use of his art as a weapon.

A friend and I were detained under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act when flying into Rome. They seized our phones and our luggage. I was fingerprinted/ DNA sampled/photographed/interrogated and missed my flight. I am so tired of the vilification of people like me. Pls RT